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And instead, they are widely used and hated! Businesses are great at iterating to find out just how much customers are willing to put up with in quality reduct

And instead, they are widely used and hated! Businesses are great at iterating to find out just how much customers are willing to put up with in quality reductions before they actually leave, and also great at putting up barriers to shift that tipping point further in the company's favour. It turns out people will put up with a lot. Even stuff they hate. We have the technology and ability to create things that are far higher quality, but it's usually a losing proposition from a profit-seeking perspective. It's just the same old "worse is better" story. (This is just a tangential thought, not some kind of disagreement or rebuttal.)

solarkraft 5y ago
It’s pretty sad, but unfortunately the exact reason why it seems like everything we use is terrible. Executives at companies don’t care for the aforementioned reason, but they discount the deep scorching branding damage this incurs that no amount of marketing will fix. Users who have the choice will switch eventually, whenever they get the chance, they will never come back and they will hate you and share their discomfort. This will lead to scales being tipped against you wherever possible. Now, you can still build a hard to avoid product and make a ton of money from it (Microsoft), so it‘s still not a losing strategy. So here I am just begging companies to stop building terrible products because they make people miserable. You can also build a high quality loved product and the effect above will reverse, but probably not at the same price (Apple, Jetbrains).
spamizbad 5y ago
I don't find the the experiences of native desktop apps particularly compelling. I think much of the thinking behind this mentality grew from an era where computers were scary and intimidating and you had huge swaths of the population that didn't even want to use them. So everyone bent over backwards trying to appeal to reluctant adopters. That world doesn't exist anymore.

solarkraft 5y ago

It’s pretty sad, but unfortunately the exact reason why it seems like everything we use is terrible. Executives at companies don’t care for the aforementioned reason, but they discount the deep scorching branding damage this incurs that no amount of marketing will fix. Users who have the choice will switch eventually, whenever they get the chance, they will never come back and they will hate you and share their discomfort. This will lead to scales being tipped against you wherever possible. Now, you can still build a hard to avoid product and make a ton of money from it (Microsoft), so it‘s still not a losing strategy. So here I am just begging companies to stop building terrible products because they make people miserable. You can also build a high quality loved product and the effect above will reverse, but probably not at the same price (Apple, Jetbrains).

spamizbad 5y ago

I don't find the the experiences of native desktop apps particularly compelling. I think much of the thinking behind this mentality grew from an era where computers were scary and intimidating and you had huge swaths of the population that didn't even want to use them. So everyone bent over backwards trying to appeal to reluctant adopters. That world doesn't exist anymore.